Abe Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, delivers his speach titled Civility in Politics and Public Life: A Current Challenge as part of the lecture series on civility at the Ferguson Library in Stamford, Conn., on Tuesday, May 20, 2014. Hearst Connecticut Media Group is a sponsor of the lecture series. less

Abe Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, delivers his speach titled Civility in Politics and Public Life: A Current Challenge as part of the lecture series on civility at the Ferguson ... more

Abe Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, delivers his speach titled Civility in Politics and Public Life: A Current Challenge as part of the lecture series on civility at the Ferguson Library in Stamford, Conn., on Tuesday, May 20, 2014. Hearst Connecticut Media Group is a sponsor of the lecture series. less

Abe Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, delivers his speach titled Civility in Politics and Public Life: A Current Challenge as part of the lecture series on civility at the Ferguson ... more

Abe Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, delivers his speach titled Civility in Politics and Public Life: A Current Challenge as part of the lecture series on civility at the Ferguson Library in Stamford, Conn., on Tuesday, May 20, 2014. Hearst Connecticut Media Group is a sponsor of the lecture series. less

Abe Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, delivers his speach titled Civility in Politics and Public Life: A Current Challenge as part of the lecture series on civility at the Ferguson ... more

Abe Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, delivers his speach titled Civility in Politics and Public Life: A Current Challenge as part of the lecture series on civility at the Ferguson Library in Stamford, Conn., on Tuesday, May 20, 2014. Hearst Connecticut Media Group is a sponsor of the lecture series. less

Abe Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, delivers his speach titled Civility in Politics and Public Life: A Current Challenge as part of the lecture series on civility at the Ferguson ... more

STAMFORD -- During a speech at the Ferguson Library, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League compared the Ku Klux Klan of the past to the faceless bullies of the Internet today.

Abe Foxman said members of the KKK thought they were "great heroes" to burn crosses and kill people with their masks on, but the same wasn't true when they removed the hoods.

"Fifty years later, with the Internet, it puts the mask back on," he said.

Foxman's speech, "Civility in Politics and Public Life: A Current Challenge," presented Tuesday evening at the downtown library, was the 19th installment in the Civility in America Series, sponsored by Sacred Heart University and the Dilenschneider Group, along with Hearst Connecticut Media.

Joe Pisani, a principal at the Dilenschneider Group, said Foxman was recommended to series organizers as a man of integrity. Pisani said Foxman has met with Pope Francis, as well as the two prior popes and countless other leaders.

Foxman has been the leader of the ADL since 1987, fighting for human rights and against anti-Semitism, bigotry and discrimination. He was born in 1940 and saved from the Holocaust by a Polish nursemaid. His parents survived the war, but he lost 14 family members.

"Next year will mark the 50th year of service to the Anti-Defamation League. Thank you," Pisani said to the speaker.

Foxman said he was recently asked to give a college commencement speech, but then one student protested and said he would be a disruption to the graduation.

However, Foxman went "because this was freedom of speech used to bully and intimidate," he said.

After the speech, Foxman said he publicly embraced the student who asked him not to come. He said the student later sent him an email saying he couldn't believe the embrace happened, and that it was a lesson in civility.

Foxman said having a true democracy in society has always been a challenge, but he said he wonders whether people are now facing something more subversive.

"I would begin with the Internet and social media," he said.

While people thought the Internet would make a more civil society, Foxman said it spawns hatred, and that privacy has been destroyed. When you see someone face to face, he said, there's more respect.

"I looked forward to grandchildren. They came, they're here. I didn't think I'd talk to them this way," he said, mimicking the movement of hands on a keyboard.

Though Foxman said he has engaged in civil discussions and arguments on Facebook, he has also seen people distort the facts about Jews.

Those who operate the social website are powerful, he said.

"Part of the power of the Internet is the anonymity. You can say hateful things and get them around the world in seconds," he said.

There's an attitude today, Foxman said, that you don't agree with someone 100 percent, you're not with them at all.

The "mainstream center," he said, is more important now than ever.

"I'm not sure how to get there, but I do know acknowledging the problem is a start," he said.

Foxman advised audience members to raise awareness in order to reach their goal -- civility. How they behave after they leave, he said, is the true test of whether that goal might be reached.

"There's incivility you experience every day, whether it's in politics or the media," he said. "Stand up and say, `That's not what we're about.' "

Foxman is an author and commentator, and has been in the forefront regarding major issues of the day, including the rise of global anti-Semitism, the war on terrorism, church/state issues, religious intolerance and issues relating to the Holocaust. He is characterized as a passionate supporter of the Israel and a voice for peace in the Middle East.

He has also been a member of the President's United State's Holocaust Memorial Council, appointed by Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton.